Hike standards and achievement

State officials have put in place new education requirements designed to make it more difficult for high school students to graduate.

That's not exactly how they describe the changes, of course. The goal, they say, is to make a diploma mean more, so that it is truly representative of sufficient learning as graduates go on to college or enter the workforce.

That's an admirable goal - higher standards can lead to higher achievement. But if that's all the state is doing - setting higher benchmarks with no attention given to improving students' chances of reaching them - then the new requirements could do more harm than good.

There is also a political undercurrent to these reforms we find troubling. It is telling that in announcing the more rigorous graduation requirements last week, Gov. Chris Christie also emphasized the significant drop in New Jersey's graduation rate for the Class of 2011 - down to 83 percent, compared with 95 percent for the previous class.

That reduction is largely the result of new federally mandated methods of calculating the graduation rates more accurately. Fair or not, however, this gives the governor another arrow in his public education-bashing quiver.

The current plan is to eventually replace the High School Proficiency Assessment taken in the 11th grade with end-of-course exams in math and English in the ninth, 10th and 11th grades. The changes will be phased in, set to take full effect for current fourth-graders once they reach high school.

Proof of the administration's real intent may come in what types of peripheral programs - or the lack thereof - emerge to accompany the new requirements in boosting student performance. For example, additional resources should be devoted to tutoring, summer-school programs and other remedial measures to assist struggling students.

Without such an effort, schools still facing pressure to improve graduation rates will be left to the old standby of encouraging teachers to "teach to the test" in shaping their classroom instruction. And there will be more tests, which is among the concerns that have already been raised.

Christie says too many graduates leave high school unprepared for their next step, and that these changes are aimed at correcting that.

We can't argue with that. But the way to accomplish that isn't by simply ratcheting up the demands and waiting to see how it all shakes out.

Raising the bar is a wonderful concept unless it's being used primarily as a weapon to exclude more people from reaching a certain level of achievement. If Christie simply wants to chop the graduation rates down a few notches and leave more students without diplomas, that's an irresponsible approach to reform.

Christie's ongoing disdain for the quality of public education in New Jersey remains one of his biggest failings as governor. While there has always been some merit behind his criticisms of the teachers union, his attacks have extended far beyond legitimate gripes.

The overriding impression is that the governor would gladly replace the current system with a network of charter schools and private-tinged ventures, this despite the fact that the vast majority of the state's school districts have been, and continue to be, highly successful.

The problems in the urban districts are undeniable, but that doesn't justify taking a wrecking ball to the foundation that supports so many quality schools.

We mention all of this because the changes in graduation requirements cannot be allowed to degenerate into a means of "proving" Christie's false premise about the deficiencies of the state's public education.

They must be accompanied by fresh investment in lifting students to those higher standards in ways more thoughtful and varied than just "getting rid of bad teachers," and that aren't tossed aside as unaffordable.

After all, what we want here are better prepared high school graduates, not fewer of them.

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Hike standards and achievement

State officials have put in place new education requirements designed to make it more difficult for high school students to graduate. That's not exactly how they describe the changes, of course.

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